We are not even in November yet and FC Barcelona are already going through a critical moment into the season. They have been knocked out from the Champions League right away and they will play the Europa League for the second consecutive year, the second European clubs competition, and Robert Lewandowski has been pointed out for this.
The team coached by Xavi Hernández has not performed at an optimal level in Europe and their competitive mentality when facing off these kind of games keeps being too weak. They really invested in this last transfer market in order to win titles again and one of the main additions was Robert Lewandowski, a world class striker that just can’t stop scoring goals at the age of 34.
The Polish had been playing in the Champions League round of 16 for more than a decade and this will be his first time playing in the Europa League in the last 12 years, but… Is Lewandowski meeting the expectations on him individually?
The ex-player for Bayern Munich has scored 13 goals so far at LaLiga Santander in just 12 games, which makes an average of more than one goal per match. This allows him to be the top scorer in the league with a big advantage towards his immediate chase, Borja Iglesias, who has scored seven goals so far.
His main rival in the race for the golden boot, Karim Benzema, has only been able to find the net five times this season, mostly due to injuries, which makes the Polish to also have a clear lead over the Frenchman.
Furthermore, Lewandowski is not just an established and insatiable scorer, as he also knows to make the last pass so his teammates can score easily, as he has also given four assists in eleven games. He is clearly the best player from LaLiga Santander so far with a big distance compared to the second one.
His performing in the Champions League is not too different to the one in LaLiga, as he has scored five goals in five games. However, the big difference is in the fact that three of those five goals took place against Viktoria Plzen, a very weak rival compared to the rest in the group.
Maybe this might be one of the reasons why Barça are eliminated from the Champions League, because everything can’t rely on whatever Lewandowski does on the field, as no one else scores if he does not.
He did not do so against Inter Milan at the first game and neither against Bayern, casually all the games that Barça have not won in that competition. He then scored a brace against Inter at home, but the three goals from the Italian team neutralized the contribution from the Polish.
From my point of view, Lewandowski is absolutely meeting the expectations from the start of the season, even though it is true that he has not performed his best in three out of the four most important games in the Champions League. Football is a team sport and there are other ten players that can step up when someone is not accurate one day.
Up to this point, the conclusion is that Lewandowski averages more than a goal per game and very few players can say that.
Translated by Guillermo Bermejo.
Main image: @FCBarcelona_es.
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